Inspiring Africa's Sustainable Business Growth
MOROCCO – Chari, a B2B e-commerce and fintech startup, becomes the first Moroccan startup to receive US$1 million (10.9 million MAD) from Endeavor Catalyst, an investment fund that is part of the Endeavor network. Endeavor Catalyst’s investment is part of Chari’s Serie-A round. This funding round allows the Moroccan startup to strengthen its continental expansion and begin its shift to…
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TANZANIA – The World Bank approved additional financing of US$335 million to support Tanzania’s efforts to scale up grid extension and grid densification, following the country’s achievement as one of the fastest electricity access expansion rates in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade. The new International Development Association (IDA) credit to the Tanzania Rural Electrification Expansion Program (TREEP) will facilitate…
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DRC – InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), has signed an agreement with Equatorial Power (EP), committing US$1.7 million to scale the company’s innovative mini-grid model in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda. The project will see the companies co-develop four new mini-grids and four agri-processing hubs (APHs) on Idjwi Island, DRC, followed…
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NIGERIA – CrossBoundary Energy Access Nigeria (CBEA) and ENGIE Energy Access Nigeria (ENGIE) have announced a project finance agreement to build a US$60 million portfolio of mini-grids that will connect over 150,000 people to electricity in Nigeria. ENGIE has developed a pipeline of mini-grids to build over the next four years. As part of the agreement, CBEA will finance all…
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EGYPT – Egyptian B2B trucking marketplace Trella has secured a significant debt facility from Contact Financial Holding, the leading Egyptian non-banking financial services company, to expand its business in a number of ways. The two companies are partnering up through four different subsidiaries within Contact – Contact Factoring, Contact Leasing, Contact Credit, and Contact Creditech. Each agreement provides a tailored…
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Visa appoints Lineshree Moodley as its new Country Head for South Africa SOUTH AFRICA – Global payments company Visa has appointed Lineshree Moodley as its new Country Head for South Africa (SA). Lineshree will be responsible for the development and implementation of Visa’s growth strategy in the region and will be part of the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) leadership team at…
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MOROCCO – BMCE Capital Investment, part of the BMCE Capital Group, has announced the launch of its first venture capital dedicated to financing Moroccan startups. The new MAD 50 million (US$4.5 million) fund underlines BMCE Capital Group’s plan to support Moroccan startups in the seed phase. Over the upcoming months, the fund is set to raise money from renowned Moroccan…
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MEA – Partment, a proptech firm that provides co-owned second homes, has announced that it has successfully concluded its pre-seed round at US$1.5 million to improve the infrastructure of the platform and launch its MVP in Egypt. Nclude, a leading venture capital platform focused on investing in fintech and fintech-enabled startups in Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa, as well…
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SOUTH AFRICA – iiDENTIFii, a South African-based automated platform that provides a remote digital biometric identity authentication process, has raised US$15 million in growth capital. The round was led by African investment company Arise whose cornerstone investors include Rabobank Partnerships, Norfund, NorFinance and FMO. This is, to date, the largest African Series A in the identity verification space. “I’m incredibly…
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TUNISIA – Kumulus, a Tunisian startup that extracts drinking water directly from the air, has successfully closed a €1 million (US$0.97m) pre-seed funding round to further improve its product and even deliver its first pre-ordered copies. Several institutional investors participated in the round, including Paris Techstars Accelerator, Flat6Labs, WILCO and Bpifrance, and business angels. Kumulus is a company that operates…
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